World Bank issues bond with Treehouse to raise awareness for investing in women

World Bank bonds support the financing of sustainable development projects and programs across a range of critical development sectors in member countries.

The World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, IBRD, Aaa/AAA) issued a Sustainable Development Bond while continuing to raise awareness for the importance of investing in women and girls to accelerate economic development, reduce poverty and build sustainable societies to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality. Treehouse Investments LLC was the sole investor in the US$5 million, five-year callable bond.

Women and girls have a unique role to play as powerful agents of economic growth, stability, and sustainability. Despite progress over the past twenty years narrowing the divide between genders, especially in primary education and health, critical gaps remain. Globally, countries are losing $160 trillion in wealth due to disparities in lifetime earnings between women and men.

World Bank bonds support the financing of sustainable development projects and programs across a range of critical development sectors in member countries. This includes projects designed to close the gender gap in education and health, remove constraints for more and better jobs, eliminate barriers to women's ownership and control of assets, and enable women's voice and agency.

Heike Reichelt, World Bank Head of Investor Relations and New Products said: "We value opportunities to engage with investors that buy World Bank bonds to communicate specific development challenges that World Bank projects support and, in this case, shine the light on the World Bank's role in working with governments to address gender disparities that reduce a country's ability to grow and prosper."

Raoul G. Slavin Juliá, Director, Treehouse Investments LLC said: "Women's empowerment is an exceptionally powerful engine of economic growth and the most cost-effective means of combating climate change. It is also an idea that is right, fair, easy to quantify and whose time has come. We are pleased to participate in this issuance."